1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to a system and method for managing flash memory such as NAND memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flash memory (such as NOR and NAND flash memory) is a useful form of non-volatile primary or secondary data storage for use in compact data storage and processing devices, such as solid-state drives, memory keys, and mobile computing and/or communication devices such as tablet computers and smartphones. Given the typical configuration of flash memory, while the memory might be written to or read in a random-access fashion (particularly in the case of NOR flash) or on a per-page basis (for NAND flash), flash memory typically can only be erased one block at a time. Thus, data written to the memory often cannot be rewritten without erasing at least an entire block. While blocks may be quickly erased, during the course of normal use in computing and communication devices, flash memory is subject to a large volume of write and erase cycles which, eventually, degrades the performance of the memory.